brummie

re Bentley and where he would or would not go. The "we can offer more money than Spurs or Villa" thing is a bit of a red herring. The following facts are known amongst Villa fans at the moment. 1. Bentley had talks with MON two weeks ago. They went well. 2. Villa have offered Blackburn more money than Spurs (confirmed by board member). 3. Villa have offered Bentley more money than Spurs have (confirmed by board member). 4. Bentley is umming and aahing, but the one thing that keeps coming up is that he wants to go to a London club. 5. Villa are about to sign Friedel. Blackburn want Robinson to replace him. Spurs can get around the fact they're on a limited budget by offering a part ex deal involving Robinson. 6. Bentley will go to Spurs, Robinson will go to Blackburn plus some money, Friedel will go to Villa. If point 6 doesn't happen, I'll come on here and eat my hat. Points 4 - Bentley wanting London (which, incidentally, almost makes me hope we don't sign him if he's bothered mainly about shopping and clubbing), and point 6, Blackburn needing a new goalkeeper, are the salient points. This kind of shit isn't as easy as "offer him more money", esp not these days when everyone has money.

Lets see ... Option 1: act like Spurs, wank yourselves off over the bajillions of signings you get linked with every day, look like twats when the vast majority (who most people have only ever "seen" on FM anyway) dont sign, but hey, you get a month or two of jealousy from other fans on their message boards because you're acting like Charlie Big Bollocks in the transfer market. Option 2: Quietly go about acquiring the players you want, nothing breaking until they sign and it is all done and dusted. Get the players you want, don't get excited about stuff that is never going to happen, but you know your management team are doing all they can to get their targets in. Absolute fucking no brainer.

The worst kit we have ever had. A man bra on a white background. Fantastic. It looks like a bib.

I loathe the Evening Standard, it is just the Daily Mail in a different skin. However, London is one of 3 or 4 global megacities, and as such, a London newspaper can be every bit as important as a national newspaper. There's no point comparing it with the Chronicle or similar.

More examples of the shitty way they've conducted themselves this summer. I used to have a lot of time for Benitez, and Liverpool in general (it may seem a cliche, but they really did used to do things the right way), but the way he has conducted their transfer business this summer has been disgraceful.

36m for Adebayor is just absurd. In fact, it isn't just absurd, it way beyond that.

We've got one. It is quite polished and professional looking, but entirely useless in this, the age of that there internet.

Pleased with this as our first signing. He's a good player who will get better under MON, and the price is not too bad either. Gives us another midfield option and adds more strength in depth. He's not a Barry replacement, though, I've a feeling we'd probably have signed him had Barry been staying.

I know. *Bond villain laugh*

Incidentally (last one, I promise), we should NEVER EVER be wearing blue, even if it is only an away kit. Never.

Never really liked that one. Always reminded me of Dean Saunders for some reason. Because he wore it whilst scoring goals aplenty for us. I had it and loved it at the time, looking back, it was very much of its time. Incidentally, the Villa, Arsenal and Inter away kits are all exactly the same template, just different colours.

He can wear whatever he fucking wants as far as I'm concerned I particularly like his baggy shirt / long sleeves look, he looks like a sort of Tony Morley - Gordon Cowans (god, what brilliant players) hybrid.

If I were looking for a sign that nothing had changed at Newcastle, it would be you giving him 150k a week wages. And I mean that in the most positive of senses. That's 8 million of your English pounds a year. Five year contract, 40 million pounds on the back of a few decent UEFA Cup performances and two decent games int he European Championships. The world has gone utterly mad if anyone forks that out.

I quite like it. Maybe a little bit too much blue on it, but pretty cool. Nike's kits are of a pretty good quality. This one reminds me of the kit circa 1990 as worn by David Platt. http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/javaImages/fa/8b/0,,10265~3705850,00.jpg Blue away kit. Controversial. http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/javaImages/fc/8b/0,,10265~3705852,00.jpg

Well said Matt Dickinson in The Times today.

If you want a pictorial representation of why I am starting to fucking hate this game, just look at Kenyon's fat, smug, self satisfied face in that picture. Everything which is wrong in football. In one person.

All we need are a couple of sizeable deals to go through, and the whole transfer market will come to life. That's said to be how it works. If Ronaldo moved to Madrid tomorrow, this thread would be doing 10 pages a day by next week, nae bother. I don't know why I just wrote nae rather than no.

I honestly can't think what you see in Viduka. I know we all see our own players in a more favourable light, but when I see Viduka, I just see one of the most immobile strikers I've ever seen.

If we don't sign a keeper soon, we genuinely will have No Juan in goal.

It is all a little confusing, replacing one error prone joker with another (although Robinson is better than Carson, at least the Carson of the latter half of last season). I think he's getting Brad Guzan in and wants another option alongside him. Weird logic, but you've got to trust the manager. I covered my face in shame when we signed Harewood, and he proved - goals per minute - to be amongst the most prolific strikers in the PL (weird but true). Hey, KD, I heard today you are going to pip us for the signing of Anton Ferdinand *prays*

Surely the Zenit board were also aware of the possible value hike the EC would give their player, though?

I've often wondered is it in clubs' interest to sell more season tickets? Your crowds will probably be the same next year as they were this. If they do that with fewer season tickets sold, that means a higher take per seat over the season, with individual match tickets costing more. We've capped our ST numbers at 27k, which is the number we had last year. The board have said that they want as many tickets available for the "occasional" supporter as possible. 42k minus 3k away fans minus 27k STs leaves 12k match day tickets per game. Their reasoning doesn't really stand up, it looks clearly like they're maximising income from those non ST tickets, an argument which would point at Ashley probably not being that bothered if your ST sales are down. Clubs are pretty clever money making machines these days, they've probably thought of all the points in the thread above.

Yeah! I'll have you know that we couldn't even manage to sign No Juan. After consulting his agent Maetihs he turned us down because nobody knows who Keegan is and we are a crap club with no Europe and no hope and we might as well pack it in and cease to exist. One thing I heard is that Spurs were rumoured to be making a late pounce for him before we got there first.

I'm reliably informed that Villa have signed No Juan.

I feel like the kid in your avatar after today's news. What? The Arshavin news? Or have I missed something? Much panic everywhere. It is still June. Be patient, black and white striped friends. Also lost out on Arda today. I fear it was the same again, perform at the European Championships and the competition to sign them goes mental.